Thank you Algonquin and NetGalley for an eARC and a finished copy of Hieroglyphics.

SYNOPSIS via Goodreads:

“Lil and Frank married young, launched into courtship when they bonded over how they both—suddenly, tragically—lost a parent when they were children. Over time, their marriage grew and strengthened, with each still wishing for so much more understanding of the parents they’d lost prematurely.

Now, after many years in Boston, they have retired in North Carolina. There, Lil, determined to leave a history for their children, sifts through letters and notes and diary entries—perhaps revealing more secrets than Frank wants their children to know. Meanwhile, Frank has become obsessed with what might have been left behind at the house he lived in as a boy on the outskirts of town, where a young single mother, Shelley, is just trying to raise her son with some sense of normalcy. Frank’s repeated visits to Shelley’s house begin to trigger memories of her own family, memories that she’d rather forget. Because, after all, not all parents are ones you wish to remember.

Hieroglyphics reveals the difficulty of ever really knowing the intentions and dreams and secrets of the people who raised you. In her deeply layered and masterful novel, Jill McCorkle deconstructs and reconstructs what it means to be a father or a mother, and what it means to be a child piecing together the world all around us, a child learning to make sense of the hieroglyphics of history and memory.

Hieroglyphics follows Shelley, her son Harvey, and husband and wife duo Frank and Lil. Each chapter is told from one of their perspectives. Shelley and Harvey have perspectives from the present while Frank’s perspectives switch from flashbacks to current time, and Lil’s perspective is told from letters she has written to her family. Frank and Lil have recently moved from Boston to the town that Frank grew up in North Carolina where Shelley and her son currently live. 

I liked that as a reader, I didn’t find out why Lil’s perspective was only told by writings and I thought that the reveal was well done. I love that Jill researched the two historical events that take one parent from Frank and Lil. I would have liked to see more building on what exactly bonded the two together. “

REVIEW

My rating: 3 stars

However, overall Hieroglyphics was much more character driven than plot driven and as a reader that prefers a mix of both, I think I would’ve enjoyed this story a bit more if there had been more plot building around all of the characters. I wanted just a little more background of what happened to Shelley before she moved to North Carolina as well as what exactly did Frank do with his colleague that had Lil uncomfortable? McCorkle also revealed some plot points within the last thirty pages, and while I enjoy that in thrillers, I think it fell short in this piece of fiction. If the reveals had been revealed just a little bit earlier, I think that this book could have been more successful for me as it felt like a disjointed conclusion to me. 

As perspectives moved around between flashbacks, current time, and letters, I often found myself confused by what exactly happened. 

If you like character driven stories told from multiple perspectives, I highly suggest you pick up Hieroglyphics because I think it will be for you.